Rageese to chase G1 Glory after L’Oreal Paris Stakes win

Trainer Darren Weir will chase a Group 1 win with Rageese after the four year old won the Group 3 $200,000 L’Oreal Paris Stakes (1400m) at Flemington today.

Rageese, above, will now head to Perth for the G1 Railway Stakes after winning the L’Oreal Paris Stakes at Flemington. Photo by Steve Hart.

Weir has selected the Group 1 $1m Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot in Perth on November 19 as Rageese’s next target and is confident that he will handle the step up to the 1600m.

“We have been heading towards this race all preparation and hopefully he would perform well today to book a berth across to Perth for the Railway to get his chance to run in a Group 1,” Weir said.

“So the way he went today, hopefully he pulls up well and has a good fortnight so he can head across there.”

“The way he ran through the line today you would think if it was a mile today it would not have been a problem.

“I think if he can switch off and the race is run truely, it won’t be a problem.”

Good early pace in the L’Oreal Paris Stakes allowed winning jockey Damian Lane to settle Rageese ($6) midfield before running home to score a length win over Arod ($15) with the unlucky Federal ($4.80) winding up in third sport.

Favourite Takedown ($4) raced on the pace for Blake Shinn and battled on fairly for fifth.

“They looked to run along really strongly and Pete (Ellis, form analyst) suggested that before the race,” Weir said.

“He said that it would be a truly run race so you are probably going to be midfield. I was hoping to be a bit closer but as usual he was right and they ran along very strong.”

About The Author

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.

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